by Kimona » Fri Aug 06, 2004 4:20 pm
No, Payton signed a 2 year deal last offseason. He could've opted out of his contract this year but chose not to. Getting rid of him was a great move. He was a cancer. He's definitely a Hall of Famer and all but he totally didn't fit in here in Los Angeles. And what made it worse was that he didn't even try. He showed up talking shit and never stopped. Good riddance.
I think I like this new look Lakers. I mean, it's not like I expect them to be contenders or anything this year but they have a solid group of youngsters. No one could replace Shaq of course, but completely overhauling the team and making younger and faster is a great move. So nothing this year, nothing the year after but 2 years from now.... Definitely maybe!
If this Devean George for Nikoloz Tskitishvili trade goes through, the Lakers will be in even better position, in my opinion.